1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sales activity management system, etc., for managing sales activity utilizing IT (Information Technology).
2. Description of the Related Art
It is necessary for managers who carry out managing of sales activity in a company, to consistently comprehend steps in each sales negotiation, and to give adequate instructions to the salespeople. Conventionally, content of activity of the salespeople (for example, calling activity to a customer), and results are reported to the manager by a daily report. Managers manage sales activities using the daily report and customer files. In this way, in a case where management of sales activity is carried out using documents, it is difficult for the manager to acquire adequate and objective information, because in most cases, the description content of the document differs according to the salesperson. Also, it is difficult to comprehend sales negotiation as a lump, in a marketing division, and to comprehend each sales negotiation from a predetermined dimension.
Especially in a sales negotiation, it is important to carry out each step that structures a process until an agreement is reached in the sales negotiation, at an adequate timing by an adequate content. However, it can be said that information concerning the process of the sales negotiation concerning each customer is not fully comprehended and managed by the manager.
In recent years, SFA (Sales Force Automation) system that makes possible, innovation of general service including sales activities, etc, is becoming common. By making full use of various IT (Information Technology) in the SFA system, effects equal to or more than rationalization of business affairs in marketing divisions, can be obtained. By the improvement in mobile computing technology, necessary business transaction information can be obtained immediately, even at a customer's destination, and a system of going straight to a destination and going straight home can be realized. The salespeople can carry out effective sales activity and improve customer satisfaction by using the SFA system.
For example, a system that accumulates management knowledge that the managers have as community property of an entire company, and makes possible effective employment of this knowledge, is disclosed in for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2002-279159, as a management system using the SFA system.
However, management towards salespeople differs greatly according to the skill of the manager, and in most cases, accurate instructions at a high level do not prevail. Also, in carrying out management, managers tend to rely on their experience and senses. Furthermore, what kind of process should be adopted in sales activity, relies on each salesperson's decision. In this way, there are cases where accurate sales activity can not be carried out depending on the skill level of the managers and the salespeople.